I drove through Connecticut back in the Fall of 2007 with three other ladies on a New England Leaf Peeper Road Trip. It was the first road trip I had ever planned, and it would be the first of many road trips in visiting the remaining 50 states I had to visit before I turned 30.
Because we all lived in the DC area, we decided to keep it cheap and just drive up to New England and split the price for gas. We some how made a wrong turn in New Jersey and rather than going around New York City, we went right through Queens during rush hour. AH!! Thankfully, I wasn’t driving and we got to Connecticut just fine – just a little later than anticipated.
We stopped at Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Mashantucket - http://www.foxwoods.com/default.aspx. No, we’re not gamblers, but it’s the only Hard Rock Café in Connecticut, and Lori is a collector of their lapel pins. While Lori went in to get her pin, we decided to drive around. Holy Cow! Foxwoods was HUGE! It’s out in the middle of nowhere too. I’ve heard from a few people I know that it’s a pretty cool casino inside if you’d like to check it out.
On the subject of souvenirs, I don’t collect much. I tend to take a lot of pictures of the trip to take home. I do get some postcards and magnets though. Some of my friends collect shot glasses, lapel pins, spoons, art, etc. It’s kind of cool to collect the same thing from your various trips.
Continuing on, my directions from the casino to the hotel weren’t that great, we’re out in the middle of nowhere, it was extremely foggy, it was REALLY dark, and we got lost. After deciding to pull over and try to read the map a little better, God sent this WONDERFUL FRIENDLY couple that pulled over to see if they could help us. She was showing her husband the area she grew up in and was headed in the same direction as we were so we followed them to the hotel. They even invited us to go get drinks afterward however after the long day, we were exhausted and went to bed.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Mystic. I don’t get paid to say this; however, when looking for hotels on my road trips, I stay with Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inns because they ROCK! Their hot breakfasts are really good. Hampton Inn has really good fresh-baked cookies during the week nights. Their prices are pretty good, and they’re always safe. There have been a few times I haven’t stayed at them because there wasn’t much of a choice in where I stayed as in the case of the Grand Canyon or the Badlands of North Dakota.
The next morning, the sun had risen, but not the fog. Our hotel was a little higher than everything else and looking down into the port we saw the really thick fog. We couldn’t see anything down at the port so we headed out of town and toward our next stop, Providence, Rhode Island.
While in Mystic, we wanted to check out Mystic Seaport - http://www.mysticseaport.org/ and the Olde Mistick Village - http://www.oldemistickvillage.com/. They seemed like great places to visit and get the old New England feel. Mystic Seaport is a museum that looks like a 19th century village and shipyard including the old tall ships. You can even arrive there on your boat and dock there. The Village is an outlet mixed with brick pathways to give it the olde world feel.
My next post will be places that I wanted to go to on my first trip to Connecticut but just didn’t fit the path we were taken or places I’ve since heard about and would like to visit. It’s amazing what you will find just around the corner.
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